# I give up. How do you get Amazon hosted photos to display? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 16, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762 "2021-08-16T02:24:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/1 "2021-08-16T02:24:10Z")
I don’t understand. Sometimes my photos hosted on Amazon show a preview, most of the time they don’t and I can’t figure out why it works when it works or why it doesn’t when it doesn’t. I 100% of the time have the link on its own line, so I don’t get it. Any advice? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2021, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/2 "2021-08-16T13:13:58Z")
Can you post examples of when it works and when it doesn’t? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/3 "2021-08-17T04:26:56Z")
These worked: [Pet pictures! - #455 by elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-pictures/920105/455) These didn’t > [@Pet pictures!](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pet-pictures/920105/510): > > Oops, I forgot. Poe, 4 weeks old [Amazon Photos](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) Here’s Poe at 11 months. We had a vet visit today and he was told he’s a handsome boy smiley[Amazon Photos](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) I didn’t do anything differently with the links, so I don’t know why some work and others don’t ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/4 "2021-08-17T04:30:06Z")
You need to put the URL in a line all by itself. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/5 "2021-08-17T04:30:30Z")
I always put the url on a line by itself now ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/6 "2021-08-17T04:35:12Z")
In the second instance, Discourse has interpreted whatever you entered as being NOT in a line by itself. To be really sure, make sure there is a blank line both before and after the URL. They have to be totally and completely blank; no spaces or anything that could be possibly interpreted as text. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/7 "2021-08-17T04:38:37Z")
I’ve had this happen too, and I know to always put the URL on its own line. I just know now that if it’s an Amazon link, there’s a 50-50 chance it’s not going to work. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/8 "2021-08-17T04:49:07Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > In the second instance, Discourse has interpreted whatever you entered as being NOT in a line by itself. To be really sure, make sure there is a blank line both before and after the URL. They have to be totally and completely blank; no spaces or anything that could be possibly interpreted as text When I go to post just those links alone on their own lines, each has the message: > [@](#): > > Sorry, we were unable to generate a preview for this web page, because the following oEmbed / OpenGraph tag could not be found: description ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/9 "2021-08-17T11:49:53Z")
Testing: [https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/TNiLWVn3Q9yaK16MvFH3oA.z0xaDeRx5D0zte97H0HF-3](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/TNiLWVn3Q9yaK16MvFH3oA.z0xaDeRx5D0zte97H0HF-3) [https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/hTqtIs0PSDyfez2k8zGLlw.q6FIgU7hkChnNNJt01v1oF](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/hTqtIs0PSDyfez2k8zGLlw.q6FIgU7hkChnNNJt01v1oF) [https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/rXwWeac\_T-GC\_juQoDrBTg.\_BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) [https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/jG0s-YOXTQazeKWGB9Z5bg?viewBox=973%2C1297&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hTqtIs0PSDyfez2k8zGLlw.q6FIgU7hkChnNNJt01v1oF) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/jG0s-YOXTQazeKWGB9Z5bg?viewBox=973%2C1297&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hTqtIs0PSDyfez2k8zGLlw.q6FIgU7hkChnNNJt01v1oF) [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/utIDhgwyQKmYjN7s0dk8bA?viewBox=2048%2C1152&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=TNiLWVn3Q9yaK16MvFH3oA.z0xaDeRx5D0zte97H0HF-3) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/utIDhgwyQKmYjN7s0dk8bA?viewBox=2048%2C1152&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=TNiLWVn3Q9yaK16MvFH3oA.z0xaDeRx5D0zte97H0HF-3) [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/6B7tqVkKTTKdn7YGYBAUiw?viewBox=1024%2C768&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/6B7tqVkKTTKdn7YGYBAUiw?viewBox=1024%2C768&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1830%2C1220&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1830%2C1220&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2021, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/10 "2021-08-17T11:53:24Z")
Possibly I got a different result on the first four links because I’m not logged in. (And now I want a kitten.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/11 "2021-08-18T18:58:53Z")
I’m not sure why those links didn’t work, since when I tried it they appeared to work in the preview window when they were on their own line, but the thumbnails didn’t appear in the actual post. However, you can do better than that by clicking on the image to get the full-resolution image, and then (to use an example for Firefox) right-clicking and selecting “View Image”, and then cutting and pasting _ **that** _ URL in your post, on its own line, thus: [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/6B7tqVkKTTKdn7YGYBAUiw?viewBox=1024%2C768&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/6B7tqVkKTTKdn7YGYBAUiw?viewBox=1024%2C768&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=hKgiJjpDT2em0qNmhgtwng.oduIcidfKdwRLPW64aym38) [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1423%2C949&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1423%2C949&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/12 "2021-08-23T01:35:41Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > However, you can do better than that by clicking on the image to get the full-resolution image, and then (to use an example for Firefox) right-clicking and selecting “View Image”, and then cutting and pasting _ **that** _ URL in your post, on its own line, thus: Nope, I only get an error message when I try that. [https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/9hdMC72BRQqasCXUOdesjw?viewBox=449%2C798&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/9hdMC72BRQqasCXUOdesjw?viewBox=449%2C798&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK) “Sorry, we were unable to generate a preview for this web page, because the web server returned an error code of 401. Instead of a preview, only a link will appear in your post” And I also get an error when I don’t open it as a new tab… [https://www.amazon.com/photos/all/gallery/9hdMC72BRQqasCXUOdesjw?sort=sortDateUploaded](https://www.amazon.com/photos/all/gallery/9hdMC72BRQqasCXUOdesjw?sort=sortDateUploaded) “Sorry, we were unable to generate a preview for this web page, because the following oEmbed / OpenGraph tag could not be found: description” ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2021, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/13 "2021-08-23T02:19:42Z")
Amazon has photo sharing services? Is there any documenation on this? I’ve never heard of amazon as a photo sharing site. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2021, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/14 "2021-09-04T23:56:01Z")
So this, huh? I don’t know how I’ve used the internet so long and never knew Amazon was also a photo sharing service? [https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Photos/](https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Photos/) I am a Prime customer, so I initialized my account (it’s free for Prime members) and uploaded a large photo. Let me see what it looks like when I share it, via the “share link” button `https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/DMlIKlr8S9myWiy1MYIg5A?viewBox=1526%2C1908&ownerId=A1LEXEYZFZ4611` Yeah that’s kind of an annoying URL because it gives no indication it is a picture. If I click on the picture, then right click and select “copy link” I get `https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/DMlIKlr8S9myWiy1MYIg5A?viewBox=1526%2C1908&ownerId=A1LEXEYZFZ4611` e.g. the same thing… we’d have to code in custom support for this because those URLs don’t look like typical images of any sort, e.g. `https://example.com/picture.jpg` My apologies; I don’t see any easy way around this at the moment, even the usual “add `.jpg` to the end” doesn’t really work. It’s a shame Amazon chose such a weird way to implement this! ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/15 "2021-09-05T02:15:56Z")
> [@codinghorror](#): > > My apologies; I don’t see any easy way around this at the moment, even the usual “add `.jpg` to the end” doesn’t really work. It’s a shame Amazon chose such a weird way to implement this! Maybe it’s on purpose? They might want people to go to their site rather than casually posting photos they’re hosting on other sites. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/16 "2021-09-05T17:01:02Z")
As a semi-complete aside, @elfkin477, may I say that Poe was an absolutely adorable kitten (made me go “awww!” with grabby hands) and has become a stunningly gorgeous cat. ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/17 "2021-09-05T19:17:48Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Maybe it’s on purpose? They might want people to go to their site Yes it does look like this is the case. Turns out we merged the previous change a while ago, so Discourse properly looks at the `content-type` of the URL regardless of what the URL looks like, e.g. `https://example.com/image.jpg`. > The SD poster is saying that it works about 50% of the time. I’d be willing to make a bet that Amazon has some stuff going on in their backend that tracks the groupShareToken such that it is only valid for a limited period of time/views and/or IP locked, etc. > > Basically: I seems as though Amazon is trying to tell us it doesn’t want to be a service that hosts images for you to embed directly in to other sites. I tried a bunch of ways of generating “image links” and none of them work, so I think Amazon is indeed saying **they are not interested in being an image _embedding_ service.** Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/18 "2021-09-07T11:57:58Z")
Testing… [![](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1830%2C1220&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ](https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1830%2C1220&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q) ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/19 "2021-09-07T12:05:04Z")
Amazon does appear to allow embedding pictures, as in the above post. It’s just the OneBox that is flakey. In the preview of this post it tries to OneBox the below URL and gives the error: > Sorry, we were unable to generate a preview for this web page, because the following oEmbed / OpenGraph tag could not be found: description > **[Shannon shared 1 photo with you](https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/TNiLWVn3Q9yaK16MvFH3oA.z0xaDeRx5D0zte97H0HF-3)** > >   ---
**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/codinghorror/32/4242_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/codinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762/20 "2021-09-07T18:39:55Z")
Ok, but the URL for the above image is `https://thumbnails-photos.amazon.com/v1/thumbnail/JEhO9T7pQVCyCEwzAgFPDg?viewBox=1830,1220&ownerId=ARO9M3O2ROPXK&groupShareToken=rXwWeac_T-GC_juQoDrBTg._BVWIOtdJtzfylK52qRQ-Q` So there’s a bunch of extra “stuff” in there: - Viewbox dimensions - Owner ID - Group Share Token My guess is the one with the group share token is the way, but I don’t know how to generate that from my one photo that I have stored on Amazon photos. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-give-up-how-do-you-get-amazon-hosted-photos-to-display/948762.md?page=2)